1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, an information terminal apparatus, an image forming system, an image forming apparatus management and control method, a computer-readable recording medium storing an image forming apparatus control program and a computer-readable recording medium storing an information terminal apparatus control program, which enable remote display or/and operation of the image forming apparatus using the information terminal apparatus connected to the image forming apparatus through a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a field in which an image is formed on a sheet based on image data, a system has been proposed which enables one or a plurality of image forming apparatuses to be managed by an information terminal apparatus such as a PC by connecting the image forming apparatuses to the information terminal apparatus, or which enables image data to be printed at an image forming apparatus by transmitting the image data from an information terminal apparatus to the image forming apparatus.
There exists a remote panel function as a function for remotely operating an image processing apparatus connected through a network. Typically, it is assumed that a remote panel is connected from a PC or a tablet terminal and used at a location distant from machine which is a connection target. If, in such an environment, for example, a user transmits printing data from a PC, but an error has occurred for some reasons, the user needs to go to the location of the machine and directly operate an operating unit or the machine to eliminate the error. However, there is a case where the error could have been addressed through operation from the remote panel according to types of errors, in which case an unnecessary burden is placed on the user.
To address such a problem, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-18607 discloses a system in which if some abnormity has occurred on an image forming apparatus, information of the image forming apparatus on which the abnormity has occurred is preferentially displayed on a remote operating apparatus. In this system, in an environment where a plurality of remote panels are displayed, a user can promptly know occurrence of a problem through the remote operating apparatus which preferentially displays and highlights a remote panel of the image forming apparatus at which the problem has occurred.
However, in the above-described conventional image forming system, for example, the remote panel has to be already activated upon printing. Because the remote panel regularly acquires image information of an operation panel during activation, a large size of data regularly flows on a network, which causes a problem of increase in traffic.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and at least one of object thereof is to provide an image forming apparatus, an information terminal apparatus, an image forming system, an image forming apparatus management and control method, a computer-readable recording medium storing an image forming apparatus control program and a computer-readable recording medium storing an information terminal apparatus control program, which can improve operation efficiency of a system.